NLL

Rock Down Swarm 15-13 in Final Preseason Test

from press release

TORONTO – After dropping their first two
pre-season matchups, the Rock again started slowly but ten second
half goals powered the defending NLL champions to a 15-13 win over
the Minnesota Swarm on Sunday evening at the Iroquois Lacrosse
Arena in Six Nations, Ontario.

Toronto found themselves down 5-2 after one quarter and then
trailed 6-2 late in the second quarter. Garrett Billings, Kasey
Beirnes and Stephan Leblanc then combined to rattle off three
straight goals in 2:14 to close the gap to 6-5 at the half.

The third quarter belonged to the Rock. Nick Patterson replaced
Tyler Carlson in the Minnesota cage and saw seven Toronto shots get
by him as the Rock led 12-8 after three quarters. Captain Colin
Doyle scored three goals in the quarter to lead the surge.

Minnesota rallied in the fourth quarter but it wasn't enough as
despite outscoring the Rock 5-3 in the final fifteen minutes, the
Swarm could never close to within fewer than two goals.

The game featured five fights as well as Rock Head Coach Troy
Cordingley being ejected from the game just two minutes into the
fourth quarter.

"The blatant high stick that was missed," remarked Cordingley
when asked about what set him off in the fourth quarter. "The
Minnesota player went right for our players' head and there's no
room for those kind of hits to the head in our league. There has
been a heightened awareness for hits like these and it's a focus
call. We'll wait and see what the league has to say, however, I
thought it was disgusting."

Doyle added four assists to his three goals for a seven-point
game. Billings also had a hat-trick to go with a pair of helpers
for five points. Matt Roik got the win in the Rock goal allowing 11
of the 13 Swarm goals in 58 minutes of work. Pat Campbell gave up
two goals in two minutes at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Campbell exited the game when he was given a game misconduct after
he left his crease and made his way down the floor to get involved
in an altercation.

"We will not be taken advantage of," said Cordingley. "We're
team tough. I like how we responded to the different situations
that we were put in this evening. When two of our leaders in Blaine
Manning and Colin Doyle are stepping up to take care of matters, it
speaks volumes."

"We played extremely well," Cordingley went on to say. "Their
goalie Tyler Carlson was sensational in the first half. We had
numerous quality chances but he kept closing the door. We got
better as the game went along and we certainly battled hard."

The Rock staff will now make their final decisions on just who
the 23 players will be that start the season on the active roster.
The roster deadline is Thursday, December 22nd and 12noon ET. Each
team also has 3 practice roster spots to fill if they choose
to.